Who is NCAA kidding?

Division I graduation rates nothing short of scandalous

News flash: NCAA researchers are publicly excited about the latest graduation rates, trumpeting a 3 percent hike among Division I football schools -- to 52 percent -- as good news. But let’s be real. If you do a little digging, the figures are still shamefully low.

The rates for white football players are 62 percent. Black players, increasingly the backbone of most programs, only graduate at a rate of 46 percent -- and that’s based on the six-year period since the freshman class of 1995 enrolled.

Bad stuff, huh? Well, we’re talking about a bunch of Rhodes Scholars compared to the scandalously abysmal graduation rates witnessed in college basketball. The overall standard is 36 percent, dragged down by a rate of 28 for black players. Put bluntly, it means about three out of four black basketball players still hadn’t picked up a degree six years after enrolling.

Give the Rev. Jesse Jackson kudos for pushing Division 1-A colleges to hire minority coaches, but this is an issue he’s said little about. And it’s one that ought to have him up in arms.

What we have is further evidence that some big-time athletic departments -- not all, thankfully -- dwell on few academic issues other than keeping football players eligible Saturday-to-Saturday. So they’re making money off a good number of athletes who’ll never earn a degree from the very schools they suit up for.

If the NCAA were honest, it’d drop this student-athlete gibberish and call them what they are -- athlete-students.

Let’s face it, some athletes admitted to colleges have no reasonable chance to graduate. You’re looking at year-round demands of major college football that tax the brightest students. And, often it seems, academic support and tutoring geared towards maintaining eligibility rather than picking up a degree.

So what can be done about the charade? Maybe nothing short of congratulating programs with a history of graduating players and exposing those that dumb down the system.

Let’s start by critiquing this week’s Associated Press Top 25, recalling that the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics -- composed mostly of former college presidents -- has proposed a postseason ban on teams that graduate less than 50 percent of their players.

Based on this modest threshold, you’d have a bunch of teams sitting out the bowl season. We’re talking national title contenders like No. 3 Oklahoma (6 percent), No. 4 Virginia Tech (47 percent), No. 6 Florida (32 percent), No. 10 Tennessee (8 percent), No. 13 Kansas State (44 percent), No. 16 North Carolina State (39 percent), No. 18 Southern Cal (47 percent), No. 19 Wisconsin (48 percent) and No. 22 Alabama (31 percent), which is already banned because of NCAA violations.

The other 15 schools receiving votes this week include eight more that wouldn’t go bowling. All in all, that’s close to half of the country’s 40 top football teams.

All of which raises the question: What’s up at Oklahoma and Tennessee? And maybe Steve Spurrier wasn’t such a taskmaster after all at Florida.

You also can’t help wonder what Notre Dame had in mind by hustling after George O’Leary before hiring Tyrone Willingham. Not only did O’Leary confess to “puffing’’ on his resume, but the latest NCAA release shows his Georgia Tech gridders had a 38 percent graduation rate -- making our Bottom 20 -- while under Willingham Stanford earned Top 20 distinction by graduating 81 percent.

While we’re on the subject, let’s also give credit to the likes of Vanderbilt (100 percent), Syracuse (95 percent), Oregon, Penn State, Virginia and Wake Forest (all 88 percent).

And please, shake your head at the anemic numbers posted by Arkansas (5 percent), Kentucky (18 percent), San Jose State (21 percent), Auburn (24 percent), Fresno State and Oregon State (both 25 percent). The SEC, prime target of NCAA investigators these days, also landed a half-dozen schools in our Bottom 20.

Worse are the graduation rates of black football players, where you find Arkansas, Hawaii and Tennessee graduating none from that entering class of 1995. You have another half-dozen under 20 percent, led by Oklahoma, Clemson and Colorado.

Every parent of a prospective college athlete would be wise to commit these numbers to memory. Take the happy-talk recruiting spiel and promises for what they are. Instead, peruse the accompanying graduation lists and make it your business to study up on the ethical shortcomings of athletic programs and coaches.

Oh, and if you think a degree doesn’t apply because your son is destined for the NBA or NFL -- don’t be so sure. The pro leagues draft about 1 percent of college basketball players and 2 percent of football players. And getting drafted is no guarantee of a job in pro ball.

So graduation rates do matter.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.